Virginia Tech Had Every Chance to Beat Pitt — And Somehow Lost Them All (9-26-26)

By: Joey Raymond 

Headline Photo Credit: Jason Wiley-3780 Media/LMS Network

There are going to be a lot of conversations about the field goal. Honestly, there already are.

John Love lined up for a 36-yard attempt with a chance to give Virginia Tech its fifth win of the season, and when the kick sailed left of the upright, Lane Stadium went from believing it was about to witness one of the best moments of the James Franklin era to standing in stunned silence.

Pitt stormed the field after winning 35-33. And yes, the field goal matters. Of course it does. Let’s be honest here though, if we’re being honest about what happened Friday night, Virginia Tech did not lose this football game because John Love missed a field goal.

The Hokies lost it because they had a 14-point lead, had a 10-point lead late in the first half, turned the ball over four times, committed eight penalties for 82 yards, and allowed Pitt to score 21 unanswered points during the middle portion of the game.

And, in my opinion, there’s one play that deserves far more attention than it has gotten. The interception late in the first half. That’s the one Virginia Tech fans should still be talking about.

This game started about as well as you could have imagined

For a few minutes, it looked like Virginia Tech might run Pitt right out of Lane Stadium. The Hokies got the ball first, and Ethan Grunkemeyer immediately went to work. Luke Reynolds opened the night with a 26-yard catch. Jeffrey Overton Jr. followed with a 14-yard run, and then Grunkemeyer found Que’Sean Brown on a receiver screen.

Brown did the rest. Thirty-eight yards later, he was in the end zone and Virginia Tech had a 7-0 lead. Pitt responded with three straight incomplete passes surrounding a two-yard quarterback run, and suddenly the Panthers were punting again. Then Virginia Tech did it again.

Overton opened the next drive with an eight-yard run before Brown made one of the best catches of the night, hauling in a 43-yard ball down the field. A penalty moved the Hokies inside the 10, and after Overton helped get them to the doorstep, Grunkemeyer finished the drive himself with a one-yard touchdown run.

Four drives into the game, Virginia Tech had scored twice and Pitt had managed virtually nothing. It was 14-0. For a team entering the night undefeated, at home, with Lane Stadium rocking, this looked like exactly the kind of statement start everyone had been waiting to see.

Pitt wasn’t going away by any means though. The Panthers finally found something offensively late in the first quarter, hitting a 12-yard pass, followed by a 30-yard completion to Yates that set up Ja’Kyrian Turner’s 20-yard touchdown run. Just like that, it was 14-7. That was the beginning of the swing.

The Hokies kept answering — but so did Pitt

Virginia Tech wasn’t playing badly and that’s what made the night so frustrating for Hokies fans. The Hokies kept moving the football. They put together a long drive in the second quarter that included a fourth-down conversion via pass interference, a 20-yard completion to Reynolds and several runs from Overton before John Love knocked through a 26-yard field goal. 17-7.

Pitt answered again, largely thanks to Virginia Tech mistakes. The Panthers moved 75 yards for a touchdown, but 42 of those yards came via Virginia Tech penalties. The drive included an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and an unnecessary roughness penalty on the same third-and-16 sequence. Suddenly, a drive that should have been dead was alive.

Pitt eventually punched it in from the one. 17-14. Still, the Hokies had an answer.

Grunkemeyer launched one deep to Que’Sean Brown for 51 yards, and after Virginia Tech worked through an offensive pass interference penalty, Grunkemeyer found Ayden Greene for a 22-yard touchdown. 24-14.

With 1:45 left in the half, Virginia Tech had a chance to go into the locker room with a 10-point lead. Then came the play that, for me, changed the conversation around this game.

The interception nobody can seem to agree on

Grunkemeyer had been excellent. He was carving up Pitt’s defense and looked completely comfortable running the offense. Then, with 1:15 left in the half, he dropped back on third down and threw toward Davion “FatRat” Brown.

Brown and Pitt’s Cameron Lindsey came down fighting for the football, but Lindsey came away with it. Interception. Pitt ball at the Virginia Tech 23. Two plays later, Cataurus Hicks was in the end zone. 24-21.

Just like that, a game that looked like it was headed toward a comfortable halftime lead was a three-point game. This is where I think Hokie fans have every right to be frustrated.

The replay was reviewed and the interception was upheld. The question is whether the right call was made. Brown and Lindsey appeared to have possession of the football at the same time, and there was significant debate afterward about whether Brown had established control first. Former NFL referee Terry McAulay even argued publicly that Brown had control first and that the play should have been ruled a catch for Virginia Tech.

That’s a massive difference. If Brown is credited with the catch, Virginia Tech keeps the football and potentially heads into halftime up 24-14. Instead, Pitt gets the ball at the 23 and scores a touchdown. 

That’s not some meaningless first-quarter call. That’s a 14-point swing in a game decided by two points. That’s why, personally, this is the officiating decision that bothers me more than the field goal. The interception changed the entire trajectory of the game.

The field goal was a kick and yeah it mattered but if Tech managed to keep that ball, he might not have even needed to attempt it. 

Pitt lost its quarterback — and somehow kept going

There was another storyline unfolding in the middle of all of this that deserves some attention. Pitt didn’t finish this game with the quarterback who started it. Mason Heintschel had played well enough to keep the Panthers within striking distance, completing 10 of 13 passes for 113 yards and a touchdown. But early in the third quarter, Heintschel took a hit near the sideline and immediately grabbed at his knee.

He made his way toward the medical tent with the help of a trainer before eventually heading to the locker room. Pitt had to turn to Holden Geriner. Geriner had been a backup coming into the night, but suddenly he was being asked to take over against an undefeated Virginia Tech team in a hostile Lane Stadium with his team trying to protect a three-point lead.

And boy did he deliver. Geriner completed 8 of 12 passes for 78 yards and a touchdown, including the 29-yard touchdown pass to Cataurus Hicks that put Pitt ahead 35-24 early in the fourth quarter.

That’s a hell of a moment for a backup quarterback. And it’s something Virginia Tech’s defense has to own, too. The Hokies had a chance to rattle a quarterback who had just been thrown into the game unexpectedly. Instead, Geriner settled in, made the throws he needed to make, and helped Pitt build what looked like an insurmountable 11-point lead.

It didn’t end up being insurmountable. But it almost was. While Virginia Tech will spend plenty of time talking about what it could have done differently, Pitt deserves credit here. The Panthers lost their starting quarterback, lost an early 14-point lead, watched Virginia Tech storm back late, and still found a way to put themselves in position to win.

Then everything unraveled

Pitt came out of halftime and immediately took control. The Panthers marched down the field, converting a fourth-and-one along the way before Damon Ferguson Jr. eventually punched in a 15-yard touchdown. For the first time all night, Pitt had the lead. 28-24. Largely thanks to that interception, it created a huge points swing.

However, Virginia Tech had an answer waiting. Reynolds made another big play. Grunkemeyer continued throwing the ball all over the field. But then came another turnover. Turning the ball over was definitely Tech’s kryptonite. Grunkemeyer fumbled, giving Pitt the ball at the Virginia Tech 28.

The defense answered by forcing a turnover on downs, so for a moment it felt like the Hokies had escaped. But the offense couldn’t capitalize. A holding penalty put Virginia Tech behind the chains. Grunkemeyer was sacked. An incomplete pass followed. Punt.

Pitt got another chance and eventually tried a long field goal, only for a botched snap to turn the attempt into a turnover on downs. Again, Virginia Tech had life. Again, the Hokies couldn’t take advantage.

Overton made a great catch on the next drive. Then Virginia Tech fumbled again. Pitt recovered. By the time the fourth quarter arrived, the Hokies had repeatedly given the Panthers opportunities to put the game away.

And Pitt finally did. A blown coverage turned into a 29-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter. 35-24. Just like that, Virginia Tech was staring at an 11-point deficit.

And somehow, the Hokies still weren’t done

This is the part of Friday night that I don’t want to lose in all the frustration. Virginia Tech could have folded. It didn’t. Prior Virginia Tech teams would’ve and have. 

Regardless, Grunkemeyer found Ayden Greene for a massive 48-yard play, with Greene making a defender miss and turning a good play into an explosive one. Then came another interception. This one was particularly painful.

Grunkemeyer was trying to make something happen, but the ball was picked off at the Pitt 3-yard line. This being despite having a wide open Luke Reynolds in the flat. Pitt had the football. Virginia Tech was running out of chances.

Then the defense gave them one anyway. Noah Chambers got into the backfield and brought down Pitt’s runner in the end zone for a safety. 35-26. The Hokies finally showed some signs of life.

Then Jeffrey Overton gave them even more life. He ripped off a 62-yard kickoff return, taking the ball all the way into Pitt territory. Two plays later, Grunkemeyer found Davion Brown for a 28-yard touchdown. Suddenly, somehow, impossibly, it was 35-33. Lane Stadium was alive again.

The Hokies had gone from down 11 to within two in less than a minute. Now all they needed was one stop. They got it. Pitt punted. Virginia Tech got the ball back. This is the moment where we were going to see whether this team could finish the comeback.

The final drive felt like something special

This is where Grunkemeyer deserves a lot of credit. Despite everything that had happened earlier in the game, the quarterback kept fighting. He found Marlion Jackson. He converted with his legs. He found Gosnell. Jeffrey Overton kept grinding out yards.

And then, on fourth-and-five, with the game seemingly hanging in the balance, Grunkemeyer found Luke Reynolds for 23 yards. That was the play. The one that kept the dream alive. Overton followed with a 10-yard run, putting the Hokies at the Pitt 19. At that point, Virginia Tech had done a lot, but not enough to win yet. But enough to give itself a chance.

The offense had marched into position. The defense had given it the opportunity. The crowd was ready. John Love walked onto the field carrying the weight of the game on his shoulders. 

A 36-yard field goal. Make it, and Virginia Tech wins. Miss it, and the undefeated start is over.

The kick went up. And it went left. Game over. Pitt 35, Virginia Tech 33.

The kick will be remembered. The turnovers are why it got there.

That’s the frustrating part of this one. Virginia Tech outgained Pitt 499-295. Grunkemeyer threw for a career-high 434 yards and three touchdowns. Que’Sean Brown was electric. Davion Brown came up with a huge touchdown. Greene made explosive plays. Reynolds made one of the biggest catches of the night on fourth down. Overton gave the Hokies a 62-yard return when they needed it most. The defense came up with a safety.

There were so many individual moments where Virginia Tech looked like the better football team, but Pitt didn’t turn the ball over. Virginia Tech turned it over four times. Those four turnovers became 14 Pitt points. That’s the game.

That’s the part that hurts, because Virginia Tech had enough talent, enough offense and enough opportunities to win this game. It just kept giving Pitt chances. And Pitt kept taking them.

This one is going to sting

There are plenty of ways to look at 35-33. You can blame the field goal, you can blame the turnovers, you can blame the penalties, you can blame the defense for the blown coverage that gave Pitt its 35th point, and you can question the interception call.

Honestly, you can make a pretty compelling argument for all of them. And that’s what makes this loss so frustrating. Virginia Tech didn’t get blown out. It didn’t get dominated. It didn’t walk into Lane Stadium and discover it wasn’t ready for this moment.

It played a really good football team, gave that team far too many opportunities, dug itself into an 11-point hole and then fought like hell to get back out of it. And it almost worked.

That’s the part I keep coming back to. A year ago, a Virginia Tech team that found itself in this kind of game might have simply disappeared. No. Definitely would have. This team didn’t. It kept throwing punches, It kept fighting; the defense kept making plays. 

The special teams unit delivered a 62-yard return when it absolutely had to. And with the game on the line, Grunkemeyer and the offense marched 62 yards and put their kicker in position to win it. They didn’t finish.

Now, the Hokies are 4-1. Pitt is 5-0. And the first loss of the James Franklin era is going to sting for a while. Especially if the Hokies go out west and lose to Cal. But if there’s one thing I hope doesn’t get lost in the noise surrounding that final kick, it’s this:

Virginia Tech had a chance to win this football game because it never stopped fighting. Now it has to figure out why it needed that comeback in the first place. Because the next time the Hokies get into a game like this, they can’t afford to spend four quarters giving themselves reasons to wonder what might have been.